The adjective “amazing” was invented to describe the kind of experience I had in Whitby, a small town located in North Yorkshire, UK. This is where Bram Stoker found inspiration for his famous novel Dracula (1897). Now I understand what he felt when he visited this town – I felt it too.

Whitby, UK: 199 steps (bottom right) leading to the Church of Saint Mary and the ruins of Whitby Abbey.

I arrived in Whiby on Wednesday 22 April after a 6-hour journey by train. Went to the B&B where I had made a reservation, checked in, then started my exploration of the famous vampire town. My first destination was Whitby Abbey, or, to be more precise, the ruins of Whitby Abbey. In the footsteps of Dracula, I climbed the 199 steps leading to the Church of Saint Mary and the top of the East Cliff.

Old tombstones surrounding the church greeted me solemnly. I turned to contemplate the setting sun that burned like a molten copper orb, bathing the cemetery in a warm orange glow.

Whitby, UK: Church of Saint Mary in the sunset.

I continued my journey toward Whitby Abbey, its ruins silhouetted against the darkening sky.

Whitby, UK: Whitby Abbey in the sunset.Ruins of Whitby Abbey in the sunset.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a cloud of fog appeared to shroud the town in semi-darkness. It hung oppressively – as Edgar Allan Poe would say – over the bay, the valley and the town, eclipsing the last rays of the dying sun.

Sunset over Whitby, East CliffSunset over Whitby, East Cliff, panoramic view

The cloud swiftly slid over the ruins of the abbey, as if some malevolent power had cast a spell. Then the cold came, this humid, traitorous, creeping cold that sucks the warmth out of your body. The change in temperature was as swift as the change in luminosity. The warm glow of the setting sun was replaced by an icy semi-darkness. This sight was surreal, as if nature itself had staged it for my benefit. I felt a connection, an inexplicable bond with this place – the ruins, the church, the cemetery, the old stones.

Whitby, UK: ruins of Whitby Abbey shrouded in fog

After this moment of awe came the realization that I was freezing. I felt the need to send some hot drink down my throat to expel the cold tentacles of the night. Destination – the nearest café!

New York Times Best Seller List

In April three fantasy books made it to the New York Times best seller list (adult fiction, hardcover):

The Shadows by J.R. Ward (New American Library). Book 13 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

The Skull Throne (The Demon Cycle) by Peter V. Brett (Del Rey). The saga of humans winnowed to the brink of extinction by night-stalking demons.

Beauty’s Kingdom by A. N. Roquelaure (Penguin). Anne Rice, writing as A. N. Roquelaure, returns to the kingdom of Queen Eleanor in this new chapter of her Sleeping Beauty series.

Barnes & Noble Bookseller’s Picks for April

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu (Saga Press). Ken Liu has won a Nebula, two Hugos, and a World Fantasy Award. Now he gives us what his fervent legion of fans has requested: a new fantasy series to savor at length.

A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall (Orbit). Five villains. One legendary general. A final quest for vengeance.

The Rebirths of Tao (Tao Series Book Three) by Wesley Chu (Watkins Media). Five years have passed since the events in The Deaths of Tao. The world is split into pro-Prophus and pro-Genjix factions, and is poised on the edge of a devastating new World War. A Gengix scientist who defects to the other side holds the key to preventing bloodshed on an almost unimaginable scale.

The Silence by Tim Lebbon (Titan). A terror-filled story of one family and their friends, as they struggle to survive in a world overrun by ravenous creatures that hunt purely by sound…

Dark Heir (Jane Yellowrock Series 9) by Faith Hunter (Penguin). Shapeshifting skinwalker Jane Yellowrock is the best in the business when it comes to slaying vampires. But her latest fanged foe may be above her pay grade…

The Unremembered (The Vault of Heaven Book One, Special edition) by Peter Orullian (Tom Doherty Associates). In anticipation of the second volume in Orullian’s epic series, Tor are choosing to relaunch a title with an author’s definitive edition. In addition to updates to the original text, they are also including an exclusive short story set in the world of Vault of Heaven as well as a sneak preview of the sequel, Trial of Intentions, and a glossary to the universe.

Jinn and Juice by Nicole Peeler (Orbit). Meet Lyla: Jinn, belly dancer, and the hottest new urban fantasy heroine in town. To escape an arranged marriage, a jinni granted Lyla her wish: to live a thousand years as a jinni herself.

The Hugos now look more like political elections than literary awards – there are parties campaigning for their favorites and against one another. It’s no longer about choosing the best works of speculative fiction, but about making a statement, pushing an agenda.

To make a long story short, a group of people who were unhappy with the Hugo results launched a campaign called Sad Puppies 3 years ago. This is the Hugo slate they proposed this year. This campaign was surprisingly successful. Best Novel: 3 out of 5 books recommended by Sad Puppies made it to the list of 2015 Hugo Awards finalists. Best Novella: all 3 recommended novellas are on the list of finalists. Best Novelette: all 4 recommended by Sad Puppies made it. Et cetera, et cetera.

Sceptics argue that literary awards are always influenced by politics. True, but that doesn’t mean awards are meaningless. Look at the list of Hugo winners – you’ll find many science fiction masterpieces there (in chronological order): A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, Dune by Frank Herbert, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, Neuromancer by William Gibson, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Hyperion by Dan Simmons, to name just a few.

Now let’s take a look at the 2015 Hugo finalists in the Best Novel category.

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)

This is the second novel in Leckie’s Imperial Radch space opera trilogy. Last year Ancillary Justice (the first book in the series) won an unprecedented number of awards: Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, BSFA, Locus, and Kitschies Golden Tentacle for best debut novel. Ancillary Sword just won the BSFA Award and was also nominated for the Nebula. It was not on the Sad Puppies list.

The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)

The first instalment of a space opera trilogy that continues The Saga of Seven Suns. Was on the Sad Puppies list.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)

Also nominated for the Nebula. High fantasy meets steampunk – a promising genre bender set in an original universe. It was not on the Sad Puppies list.

Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos (47North)

Another military space opera, a subgenre that seems to be appealing to the sci-fi fandom. Was on the Sad Puppies list.

Of note, 47North is a publishing company owned by Amazon. Some argue this is yet another nail Amazon wants to put in the coffin of the traditional publishing model. That would be a topic for another post.

Skin Game by Jim Butcher (Roc Books)

Was on the Sad Puppies list.

Now that’s a surprise. For two decades urban fantasy received little attention from the sci-fi fandom. Jim Butcher never received any major awards, and was seldom nominated. The same holds true for Kelley Armstrong, Patricia Briggs, Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, and other best-selling urban fantasy authors. Charles de Lint and a few others (e.g. Seanan McGuire) seem to be an exception to this rule.

This year the wind turned: Jim Butcher was the guest of honor at the 66th British National Science Fiction Convention, Dysprosium, and now his latest addition to the hugely popular Dresden Files series is nominated for a Hugo. Does this mean that the fandom is ready to embrace urban fantasy – or at least admit that this genre has a role in the evolution of speculative fiction – or is this just a political game?

Each month I will be analyzing science fiction and fantasy best seller and “best books of the month” lists.

New York Times Best Seller List

In March three fantasy books made it to the New York Times best seller list (adult fiction, hardcover):

THE BURIED GIANT by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf). In a semi-historical ancient Britain, an elderly couple set out in search of their son. From the author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day.

TRIGGER WARNING by Neil Gaiman (Morrow/HarperCollins). Stories and poems about the power of imagination.

DEAD HEAT by Patricia Briggs (Ace). Charles and Anna, married werewolves, must stop a dangerous Fae whom they encounter during what begins as a pleasure trip; Book 4 of the Alpha and Omega series.

Amazon.com, Best Books of the Month: Science Fiction & Fantasy

The Shadows: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward (NAL). Bloody war rages across the Forgotten Realms world in the third book of the Companions Codex, the latest series in R.A. Salvatore’s New York Times best-selling saga of dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden.

The Skull Throne (The Demon Cycle) by Peter V. Brett (Del Rey). The saga of humans winnowed to the brink of extinction by night-stalking demons.

A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday). A collection of short fiction from Terry Pratchett, spanning the whole of his writing career from schooldays to Discworld and the present day.

Prudence (The Custard Protocol) by Gail Carriger (Orbit). Introducing the Custard Protocol series, in which Alexia Maccon’s daughter Prudence travels to India on behalf of Queen, country… and the perfect pot of tea.

Clash of Eagles (The Clash of Eagles Trilogy) by Alan Smale (Del Rey). This work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered.

Old Venus (Bantam). Sixteen all-new stories by science fiction’s top talents, collected by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.

Note: this is a selection, not the complete list.

B&N Best-Sellers in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Vision In Silver (Anne Bishop’s Others Series #3) by Anne Bishop (Penguin). The New York Times bestselling author of The Black Jewels Trilogy transports readers to a world of magic and political unrest – where the only chance at peace requires a deadly price.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (Tom Doherty Associates). Kell is one of the last Travelers-magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes, connected by one magical city.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW). In this book, Patrick Rothfuss brings us into the world of one of The Kingkiller Chronicle’s most enigmatic characters. Full of secrets and mysteries, this is the story of a broken girl trying to live in a broken world.

Golden Son (Red Rising Series #2) by Pierce Brown (Random House). By the New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising. Golden Son continues the saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom.

Madness in Solidar (Imager Portfolio Series #9) by L. E. Modesitt Jr. (Tom Doherty Associates). The ninth book in the Imager series.

Half the World by Joe Abercrombie (Random House). New York Times bestselling author of Half a King, Red Country and the First Law trilogy: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and Last Argument of Kings.

I’ve compiled for you a list of science fiction, fantasy, and horror book awards with descriptions and links to their websites.

Most prestigious awards in alphabetical order:

Arthur C. Clarke Award

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is the most prestigious award for science fiction in Britain. It is awarded every year to the best science fiction novel which received its first British publication during the previous calendar year. The Award is chosen by jury.

2014 winner announced at Sci-Fi London Film Festival, London, May 1, 2014

Bram Stoker Awards

The Bram Stoker Awards are the horror equivalent of the Nebulas, voted by members of the professional Horror Writer’s Association. They are notable for being awarded “for superior achievement” — not for “best” of the year.

2013 winners announced at World Horror Convention 2014, Portland, USA, May 10, 2014

Hugo Award

The Hugo Award, also known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award, is given annually by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). All Awards are given for work in a given year. Individual works are eligible only in their first year of publication. Members of past and current years’ World SF Convention nominate up to five items per category.

John W. Campbell Memorial Award

The Award was created to honor the late editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, which is now named Analog. Campbell, who edited the magazine from 1937 until his death in 1971, is called, by many writers and scholars, the father of modern science fiction. Nominations come from the science-fiction publishers as well as individual jurors. Nominations are usually requested in December, and the jurors read and debate the merits of these books through April. This process produces a list of finalists based on jurors’ rankings, and the final decision is made after vigorous debate on the merits of the finalists during May.

Nebula Awards

The Nebula Awards are the Oscars of the SF/F field, awards presented by professionals to professionals. The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Since 1965, the Nebula Awards have been given each year for eligible novels published in the United States during the two previous years.

Philip K. Dick Award

The Philip K. Dick Award is given to the best original paperback published each year in the US. Each year the five judges read as much of the paperback original SF as they can get, or can stand, and then deliberate and choose nominees, that are announced in January each year, and the winners, who are announced in late March or early April at a ceremony at Norwescon. The judges then nominate their own successors. Only writers or academics are eligible to be judges.

Shirley Jackson Awards

In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year. The Shirley Jackson Award are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors.

World Fantasy Awards

The World Fantasy Awards, associated with the annual World Fantasy Conventions, were established as a fantasy counterpart to the SF-oriented Hugo and Nebula Awards. They differ from those awards in significant ways, primarily in that winners are determined by judges — though two places in each category on the final ballot are determined by votes from convention members.

2014 winners announced at World Fantasy Convention, Washington, USA, November 9, 2014

To this already impressive array of awards we need to add the Goodreads Choice Awards that has separate categories for science fiction, fantasy, and horror books.

Literary awards come in all shapes and sizes – some are prestigious, others are less known; some involve a panel of judges, others are decided by readers. However, each of those awards has a role in the publishing ecosystem. In my view, they are useful not because of their effect on sales, but because they give exposure to books and talented authors who might have remained unnoticed. Now brace yourselves for the book awards season – it starts in April!

Vampires have a special place in literature, art, and popular culture. Historically, the myth of vampires resulted from our ancestors’ poor understanding of the processes that occur inside a decomposing body. At a certain stage of decomposition, the corpse inflates, creating the illusion that it fed on the living. Beliefs in creatures feeding on human blood are so ancient that it is difficult to determine their origins, and there is historical evidence showing that these beliefs existed in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance.

In 18th-century Europe, cases of mass hysteria where people exhumed corpses to burn them forced the authorities to launch scientific investigations into the existence of vampires. Scientists concluded that the bloodsucking undead were only a product of popular superstition and tomb profanations were outlawed.

In Gothic literature, vampires made their first appearance in The Monk by Matthew Lewis before becoming an emblematic character of dark Romanticism. Byron introduced the theme of vampirism in his poem The Giaour (1813):

But first, on earth as vampire sent,

Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:

Then ghastly haunt thy native place,

And suck the blood of all thy race;

There from thy daughter, sister, wife,

At midnight drain the stream of life;

Yet loathe the banquet which perforce

Must feed thy livid living corse:

Thy victims ere they yet expire

Shall know the demon for their sire,

As cursing thee, thou cursing them,

Thy flowers are withered on the stem.

John William Polidori, one of the closest friends of Byron, created the iconic image of the undead aristocrat in his novella The Vampyre (1819). Female vampires also haunted 19th-century literature (The Dead Woman in Love by Theophile Gautier; Carmilla, In a Glass Darkly, by Sheridan Le Fanu). After Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), the vampire became associated with the concept of otherness. Dracula comes from Eastern Europe, and he also comes from the past, which makes him not only alien, but also anachronic. He is a reminder of our medieval past, viewed as dark and violent, and he is also representative of a non-Western culture.

The vampire represents the other, the heretic, the deviant, the marginal, the immigrant, the homosexual – anyone who belongs to a minority and is perceived as a threat to the established way of life in a given society.

A text key to understanding the evolution of the vampire as a fictional character is I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson. I would strongly recommend reading Matheson’s book as the film adaptation by Francis Lawrence (2007), despite its qualities, betrays the spirit of the novel. Matheson uses a postapocalyptic setting to portray an extreme case of xenophobia. A pandemic decimates the human population all over the world, and the most horrific aspect of it is that the dead, transformed into vampires, return from their graves to infect the living. Robert Neville manages to survive this apocalypse by barricading himself during the night and, during the day, he hunts and kills the undead. He doesn’t even suspect that, meanwhile, his foes are developing their own culture, and that he, Robert Neville, gained in this culture the status of a legend: he became the incarnation of death.

The theme of vampires enjoyed a phenomenal success after the publication of the Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice.An important trend in this type of literature is the humanization of the undead; nevertheless, they always remain a source of fear. Particularly popular are narratives in which vampires revealed their existence to the human society, for example The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris and the TV drama inspired by this series, True Blood (2008-present). This kind of fictional universes allow an interesting commentary on xenophobia, racism, religious intolerance, drugs, sexually transmitted diseases and other burning social problems.

The times when vampires were merely a product of superstition are long gone; nowadays, these beings are part of our popular culture. They represent the liminal state between life and death, the past and the present, the normal and the transgressive. They are “the others”, the barbarians, the Goths who live at the borders of our “civilized world”, who frighten our safety and our way of life; yet they are also our image in the distorting mirror of our collective unconscious. They are projections of our repressed fears and desires.

The Gothic: 250 Years of Success. Your Guide to Gothic Literature and Culture.

In December 1764 appeared a curious book titled The Castle of Otranto. Its preface stated:

The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed at Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written does not appear. The principal incidents are such as were believed in the darkest ages of Christianity; but the language and conduct have nothing that savours of barbarism.

The preface went on to speculate that this story had been written during the Crusades, between 1095 and 1243. A haunted castle, a mysterious prophecy, an evil and manipulative aristocrat, two young and beautiful heroines, a forbidden love and lots of action – such are the ingredients of this wildly imaginative melodrama.

Despite an initially positive critical reception, this unlikely story could have remained a footnote in the history of literature, as did other literary curiosities. However, the following year, a second edition of this book was published, and, this time, its true nature was revealed by the author. The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story was a work of fiction written by Horace Walpole, a forty-eight-year-old English aristocrat known for his passion for the medieval period and Gothic architecture.

In this stylish, rationalist 18th century, dominated by the baroque and the Classicism, Walpole was viewed as an eccentric. He went as far as to transform his villa at Strawberry Hill (just outside London) into an imitation of a Gothic castle. In the preface to the second edition of The Castle of Otranto, Walpole explained that his book was “an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern”. In other words, he transposed his love for medieval art into literature and thus created the first neo-Gothic fictional work in history.

In the 1760s, the world was not yet ready for the onslaught of the Gothic. However, two decades later, England was ready, as were other European countries that went through radical social changes.

The Gothic novel exploded in the 1790s and the 1800s, when, in England, up to 20% of all published titles belonged to this type of literature. Paradoxically, the effects of this cultural phenomenon were as profound as the books that caused it were shallow. Few Gothic novels published in the 18th century had literary merit (those by Ann Radcliffe being among the rare exceptions). More than their intrinsic quality, it was their ability to excite the imagination of a broad readership that made them so influential. The 18th-century Gothic fiction was probably the first popular genre in the history of Western civilization; it was the prototype of what we call a genre nowadays.

The success of this early wave of terrifying novels was short-lived, and, in the 1820s, readers grew tired of this kind of story. Nevertheless, 19th-century literature would not be the same without the spark of wild imagination brought by the Gothic novel. This genre created a portal between the mysterious past and the rational present through which the power of medieval fancy could relive to inseminate the modern culture. It inspired Jane Austen to write her first novel, Northanger Abbey, a satirical, yet respectful parody of the Radcliffean Gothic. It influenced Walter Scott, the father of historical fiction. It paved the road for the budding Romantic Movement, in particular its darker forms, and we can see its imprint in Byron’s poems or in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Some literary critics viewed the Gothic as biologists view extinct species, like a relic of the past, something that had a role in evolution, but was now history. As a genre the Gothic is no more; nevertheless, as an artistic style it is as strong nowadays as it was two centuries ago. It was its ability to evolve beyond the boundaries of a genre that made it so influential and widespread.

By the first decade of the 19th century, the Gothic had invaded literature and, to a lesser extent, theatrical drama and visual arts. By the first decade of the 21st century, the Gothic was everywhere: cinema, TV, comic books, music, internet, role-playing games, video games, digital art, and fashion. Not only was it adopted by every form of art and media, but it also penetrated most genres; we can find its influence in fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, romance, historical fiction, and literary fiction.

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) had a particularly grim vision of the future. He created a dark, yet sublime fictional universe. What Lovecraft brought to speculative fiction is the concept of world building. He did not only create a myth; he created an entire fictional world to illustrate his cosmological views. This is how he summarized his vision in the introductory paragraph from The Call of Cthulhu (1926):

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Science fiction would not be the same without H. G. Wells (1866-1946). His ideas became an integral part of science fiction culture: time travel (The Time Machine, 1895), human/animal hybrids (The Island of Doctor Moreau, 1896), invisibility (The Invisible Man, 1897), alien invasion (The War of the Worlds, 1898), antigravity (The First Men in the Moon, 1901), and many others. Wells also wrote brilliant short stories that bordered on fantasy: The Sea-Raiders, In the Abyss, The Valley of the Spiders, The Empire of the Ants, etc.

The Time Machine is my favorite. In this novel, an inventor builds a machine that allows him to travel to a distant future. He discovers that humanity evolved into two species: the Eloi, who live in a utopian society above ground, and the Morlocks, who live underground and prey on the Eloi. Wells used this dichotomy as a metaphor for the continuous struggle between the upper class and the underclass. I believe, however, that the main interest of this novel lies not in its socio-political overtones, but in the fascinating vision of evolution it presents. The Time Machine is a reflection on the future of our species and, more generally, the future of life on Earth.

The ocean is the most mysterious place on Earth. We probably know more about the other planets of the Solar system than about the depths of this vast expanse that covers 71% of the surface of our planet. Deep-sea exploration has been fascinating humankind since antiquity. In the Alexander Romance (earliest version traced to the third century BC), we find an episode in which Alexander explores the bottom of the sea in a glass diving bell.

But the ultimate classic novel dealing with oceanic exploration is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (French: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, 1870). This literary masterpiece is one of the earliest science fiction novels, and it features a particularly interesting postromantic character, the “tragic villain” Captain Nemo. Jules Verne shows us that the human soul is like the abyss; one can find light even in an ocean of darkness.

About the Author

Geek, science fiction fan, novelist, and essayist, A. J. is passionate about all things nerdy. He has a PhD in neuroscience and cell biology, alongside a degree in literature, and he is a member of the Society of Authors. The mysteries of the human mind, astronomy, and quantum physics have captivated his imagination since childhood. A fan of Ridley Scott, he likes his science fiction with a dark edge.